Market Recap: ETF Demand Surge Broadens Market Rally

Gabriel Selby -

Key takeaways for the month:

  • February was a milestone month for digital assets, with Bitcoin breaching $1.2 trillion in total market cap and prices hitting multi-year highs. This was driven by large fund flows into U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, which helped propel the CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index (BRTA Index) above $63,000 before settling in the $61-62K range. Ether also made significant gains and even managed to outpace its larger peer.
  • Positive price momentum was ubiquitous across the market, with the CF Free-Float Broad Cap Index returning +46.5% and the CF Diversified Large Cap Index returning +44.9%. The Ultra Cap 5 Index, representing mega-cap cryptocurrencies, led the pack by rising over 47%.
  • Open interest continued to increase for Bitcoin and Ether futures, while Ether futures on the CME reached an all-time high of 6,749 contracts.
  • The DeFi space also witnessed substantial growth, with the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols surging from $102 billion to over $162 billion, largely driven by an increase in liquid staking and lending activities.
Source: CF Benchmarks, Bloomberg, as of February 29, 2024

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